Born this day in 1935: Pierre Kartner, “Father Abraham”, Dutch singer and voice of the Smurfs. 10 facts about Smurfs.
The Smurfs were created in 1958 by a Belgian cartoonist called Pierre Culliford who used the pen name Peyo.
He came up with the original French name "schtroumpf" when he had a memory lapse at dinner one day and forgot the word for “Salt”. He happened to be dining with another cartoonist called André Franquin, and asked him to pass the schtroumpf. Franquin jokingly replied, "Here's the Schtroumpf—when you are done schtroumpfing, schtroumpf it back." They spent the rest of that weekend speaking that way, thus inventing the Smurf language.
Their first appearance was in a comic called Johan et Pirlouit (translated to English as Johan and Peewit) about a boy and his dwarf friend. On one of their adventures, they meet some Smurfs. The latter were so popular they got a comic strip of their own.
There are 105 Smurfs. They mostly look exactly the same: male, Blue skin, dressed in White trousers with holes for their tails, and white caps. They are small, described as being "three Apples high". That said, some of them can be distinguished by props relating to their names. For example, "Handy Smurf" wears overalls and sports a pencil above his ear. They are all said to be 100 years old, apart from Papa, Baby, Smurfette, Nanny and Grandpa.
There are three female Smurfs: Sassette Smurfling, Nanny Smurf and Smurfette, who was created by the villain Gargamel in order to create conflict and jealousy in the Smurf village. In the original comic, Smurfette left the Smurf village to restore peace, but in the American TV series, she stayed.
There’s an urban legend that the Smurfs represent the KKK because they wear pointed white caps, and their leader, Papa Smurf, wears a Red one. This isn’t true. The caps they wear are Phrygian or Liberty caps, which first appeared in Roman times and were worn by freed slaves.
They live in houses shaped like Mushrooms deep in the forest, which most outsiders cannot find unless they have a Smurf guide. In the original comics they eat sarsaparilla leaves, only in the TV show they also eat the berries ("smurfberries"). If they want to travel long distances, they ride on Storks.
The Smurf language basically consists of many words being replaced by the word “Smurf”. "To smurf" typically means "to make", "to be", "to like", or "to do". It can be incredibly confusing to non speakers. Peewit thinks he’s got a handle on it and explains that "I'm smurfing to the smurf" means "I'm going to the wood". A Smurf points out that what he actually said was "I'm warbling to the dawn", and he should have said "I'm smurfing to the smurf". Which is completely different. The word “smurf” can be added to other words, for example, "smurftastic".
Talking of languages, the Smurfs are known by many other names in other translations. “Smurf” is itself a translation of the original French word, “schtroumpf”. In Italy, they are Puffi; in Spanish Los Pitufos; and in Hebrew “Dardasim" which was an old word for slipper which is now so associated with Smurfs that the original use has been virtually lost.
The Smurf village featured in a UNICEF advertisement in which it was destroyed in a war. It was part of a fund-raising campaign by UNICEF's Belgian arm to raise money for the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in former Belgian colonies. With permission from Peyo’s family, the ad was shown after 9pm so as not to upset the usual target audience.
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